Blackout
by M. Marchand
Summary: The power goes out in Charlie's building and he fears the worst... for good reason.
1. Chapter 1

Acknowledgments:  
Omi as always  
The betas who helped get this fic out of development hell  
Xanthia for turning my rough idea into a real draft  
B for forcing me to insert much needed clarity  
Lee Ann for making my Charlie and my ending more believable 

Disclaimers:  
"A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend" - Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
I do not own the characters Charlie, Don or Larry nor do I have any rights  
to anything related to the TV show Numb3rs. I plead fair use and claim only  
my own writing and characters.

* * *

Chapter 1:

Complete and utter darkness.

Charlie's eyes took a moment to adjust to the sudden loss of light in his classroom; his heartbeat took a little longer. Consulting with the FBI had taught him that there were often things worse than childhood nightmare monsters lurking in the dark.

Charlie felt his way over to his filing cabinet and pulled out the nylon bag containing his Cal Sci provided emergency supplies. His anxiety level rose even higher when he discovered that the batteries in the flashlight were dead. He'd have words with the building's safety manager in the morning, but for now there was no light to be had.

Charlie closed up the bag and started putting it away, then belatedly remembered something. He pulled the bag back out and checked it; it did include a small cache of waterproof matches. Not many, but if it could get him out of the building there would certainly be enough moonlight to go from there.

Not wanting to be weighed down, he locked up his bag and laptop in the filing cabinet, rather than haul them home just for the few hours he needed to sleep and shower. He pulled on his jacket and stood just inside the doorway of his classroom for a few minutes, trying to amass enough courage to head out into the eerie pitch black hallway. After a moment, he lit up a match and quickly stepped into the hall...

...totally knocking over another person. Off balance, he tumbled to the floor himself. Charlie let out a startled yelp and simultaneously heard a woman scream. The match went out as he dropped it and they were in darkness again. He could hear the woman scrambling to get away, her panicked breath echoing through the empty space.

"Wait, wait... Please... I'm not going to hurt you," he called out to her reassuringly, and quickly lit another match.

The woman was crouched up against the wall, her eyes filled with terror.

"I'm a professor here. I just got caught in the blackout, same as you."

She did not look readily convinced.

"My name is Charlie Eppes. If you don't believe me, go into my classroom and take a look. My name is all over the place in there." He gestured to the doorway behind him but his match went out again.

"You're Charlie Eppes?" Her timid voice came through the dark.

"Yes, I am," he replied gently. She was obviously traumatized by the fright he had given her and he felt badly for it.

"You're Larry's friend. He's... he's talked about you often. I'm Deirdre. Actually, he was supposed to introduce us tonight, but I got lost looking for your classroom."

"Wait? Was that tonight? Then you must be Dr. Rydell, the new Comp Sci professor."

There was a pause, then the woman laughed. "I feel so stupid," she said. "Here I am with a 160 IQ and I try to answer your question by nodding when you obviously can't see me."

Charlie lit another match and held it up closer so he could see her face. "I can see you now."

In the flicker of the match's light, he could tell she was incredibly lovely, with dark hair and pale blue eyes that still showed the traces of fear.

"Ouch!" He'd held the match too long gazing at her and paid for it with burnt fingers.

"Are you okay?" he heard her ask.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, a little embarrassed. "These matches don't last very long and I've only got a few left."

"Well, now that we've figured out that neither of us is an ax murderer, why don't we use them to get out of this place?"

Charlie was about to nod and laughed instead, realizing that, despite his own IQ, he'd almost fallen into the same trap she had.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing." Charlie choked down his laughter and got up off the floor. He lit another match and offered Deirdre his hand. "Come on, we'll walk out holding on to each other so we don't get separated. I know the stairwells in this place and we're going to have to negotiate them since the elevators will be out."

Deirdre took his hand and rose just before the match went out again. She stood close to him and he could feel heat radiating off her body, smell the sweet scent of her shampoo and feel her breath on his neck. Suddenly the dark seemed more sensual than scary.

"You know, I can't believe I didn't hear you coming. Were you in stealth mode or something?" Charlie knew the computer in-joke would not be lost on someone with Deirdre's computer science background.

"Very funny," she scoffed good-naturedly. "I just came from giving a lecture and my feet are killing me. I figured since the place seemed close to empty that no one would hassle me if I took off my shoes and walked in my bare feet."

"You know Cal Sci has a very strict dress code. You could get in deep trouble if I turned you in," Charlie said in mock seriousness.

Deirdre groaned and struck him lightly on the chest in protest. Charlie chuckled, imagining her expression.

"Fine, make fun of me, just get me out of here. I... I don't like the dark."

As they turned to walk out of the building, the unmistakable sound of gunfire erupted from the other end of the hall.


	2. Chapter 2

Blackout 2/6

* * *

Chapter 2:

Charlie threw himself over Deirdre to protect her, pushing her into his classroom and onto the floor. Once they landed, he covered her with his body and quickly pressed a finger to Deirdre's lips to warn her not to make a sound. For a few seconds he listened, trying to hear what was going on down the hall. He could feel her body quaking under him, and wanted to comfort her, but knew it was more important to keep her safe. That meant assessing the situation before acting.

After a few seconds, he heard the sound of someone trying to force the locked doors open. More gunfire was heard and Charlie guessed whoever was trying to break in was trying to get past the keycarded doors by shooting out the locks.

Moving quickly and silently, Charlie helped Deirdre up and led her over to the far corner of the classroom where several blackboards were propped up against the wall. He pulled aside one of the larger ones and guided her into the empty space behind it. He joined her in the cramped space and pulled the blackboard back to conceal them.

She was still trembling violently so Charlie put his arm around her to try to calm her. She reached for his other hand and put her own hand awkwardly into his. Charlie tried to straighten out her hand so he could hold it properly, but she pulled away and put her hand back into his in the same way, finally smacking her hand silently against his three times quickly, three times slowly and then three times quickly again. Morse code for S-O-S. She then put her hand back into his in the same awkward position only now Charlie understood exactly what she was doing. They could not speak out loud for risk of exposure so she was choosing to speak with her hands. This time he was ready. He tapped out the Morse code for the letter 'C' that she had placed in his hand using sign language.

Charlie hadn't formally studied sign language however he had taught himself fingerspelling. He just wasn't very quick with it. Deirdre apparently knew just enough Morse code to understand Charlie so they could each 'speak' in the method that was easiest for them and still be understood.

'S-C-A-R-E-D,' she spelled out.

'2' was Charlie's abbreviated reply. He was sure she already knew he was scared as well, but communicating with her like this helped to calm him.

They listened as they heard several sets of footsteps come down the hallway. Charlie felt Deidre tense up next to him as they saw swaths of light from a flashlight creep in around the edges of their blackboard corner. After a moment, the sounds continued down the hallway and both let out the breaths they had unconsciously been holding for those heart-stopping seconds.

Finally Deirdre signed to him some numbers: '8-0-2-1-1' and then letters: 'A-B-G-N'.

Wi-Fi? Charlie wondered. She wanted to know if there was a wireless network now? 'Y,' he tapped back.

'P-D-A' was her response.

She had a handheld computer with Wi-Fi capabilities! Using the wireless network Charlie could use it to contact Don, who could alert the police.

'G,' he tapped back, but followed it quickly with 'W-E-P' to let her know the wireless network had security on it.

Even without sight, Charlie could feel Deirdre deflate as if that was bad news.

'P-W,' he tapped quickly to assure her he could get through the firewalls and get them connected.

'U,' she asked.

'Y,' he replied.

She pulled a PDA from her bag and tried to cover up the harsh glow of the tiny screen, immediately lowering the brightness to the lowest level, however it still shone like a beacon in the dark room.

Taking turns, they wordlessly worked the thumb keyboard to get through security, first on her PDA, then the Cal Sci intranet. Finally, they reached the web site Charlie used to send text messages to Don's cell phone. Thankfully, he'd used it so often in the past he had the web site address memorized.

"911 - Blackout/break-in at Cal Sci. Trapped in my classroom. Men with guns. Need help now - Charlie." He sent the message off into cyberspace with a prayer.

He looked up at Deirdre and their eyes met. Although they could barely see each other with only the dim light of the PDA for illumination, he could sense a connection to her, a look in her eyes that wasn't fear, wasn't anything bad at all. Charlie felt a sudden overwhelming urge to kiss her.

Gazing at each other, they hadn't noticed the sound of footsteps coming back up the hallway. Deirdre quickly doused the light from the PDA, shoving it back into her bag just in time. The footsteps entered Charlie's classroom and the flashlight swept over their hiding place yet again. A second set of footsteps joined the first and both moved throughout the room, neither person speaking, but not attempting to be quiet either.

The wait for them to complete their search of the room seemed interminable. Charlie wanted to hold Deirdre and comfort her but knew even the slightest movement might alert the gunmen to their presence.

Please Don... please don't let us down, Charlie prayed in silence.


	3. Chapter 3

Blackout 3/6

* * *

Chapter 3:

Suddenly sirens roared up out of nowhere and harsh lights shone through the windows.

"This is the FBI. Lay down your weapons and come out with your hands up."

Charlie choked back a sigh of relief, knowing they were still at risk as long as the armed men were in his classroom.

Rather than surrender, the men started firing on the agents outside. Charlie could hear the rapid fire of automatic weapons and flinched at how close they sounded.

Deirdre grabbed his arm in a death grip, obviously panicked, and he held onto her as tightly as he could.

They heard one of the armed men let out a cry, as if he'd been hit. Unseen by Charlie and Deirdre, his hand was still on his weapon as he fell, releasing a final spray of bullets that strafed the interior of the classroom, shattering the blackboards as they passed.

Both Charlie and Deirdre screamed, unable to help themselves as the blackboards exploded into shards around them.

In seconds, the remainder of the blackboards were pulled away by the last surviving gunman.

"Hostages," he said with a growl and started raising his gun. A single shot rang out and Charlie flinched, covering Deirdre as best he could. When he looked up, he saw the man had fallen and other shapes were streaming in to the room.

"Charlie?" a familiar voice called out to him.

"Don!" Charlie couldn't have been happier to hear his big brother's voice. "We're over here in the corner."

One of the agents arrived with a flashlight and illuminated the room so they could see Don, in full FBI gear, rushing towards them.

"Are you okay?" He asked, frantic.

"Yeah, yeah. We're okay. You got them just in time." Charlie replied.

"No..." Deirdre said in an unnaturally quiet voice. "Not quite."

Suddenly the power was restored and Charlie could see the telltale red stain rapidly expanding on Deirdre's white shirt.

"Oh, God." Charlie felt weak in the knees. Deirdre only looked down at her blood stained torso then looked back up at him, no longer able to form words.

"We need paramedics up here!" Don barked into his walkie-talkie.

"Wait... I have..." Charlie stuttered, running over to the cabinet to pull out the emergency supply kit again. Tearing it open as he ran back to Deirdre, he quickly pressed a handful of gauze into her wound. She winced in pain, but let him continue. Don grabbed another handful and after checking her back for an exit wound, pressed the gauze where her back was bleeding as well.

Charlie fought down the urge to count the seconds until the paramedics arrived. He tried not to count Deirdre's rapidly slowing rate of breaths per minute. He tried not to think of her heart doing the same.

When the paramedics loaded her into the ambulance Charlie joined her, despite Don's protestations. He'd failed to protect her and he couldn't leave her now.


	4. Chapter 4

Blackout 4/6

* * *

Chapter 4:

Larry showed up at the hospital waiting room to find Don pacing and talking on his cell phone, and Charlie sitting with his head in his hands, obviously distraught.

"Charlie!" Larry began, bewildered. "I got a call from a police officer telling me to come to the emergency room right away. They didn't say why, though."

Charlie sat his friend down. Larry had told him that Dr. Rydell was not only an esteemed colleague, but also a longtime friend. He was not going to take this news well.

"It's Deirdre," he said softly. "There was a break-in at my building tonight. The men were armed. They started a firefight with the FBI rather than surrender. We tried to hide but, Larry, Deirdre got shot. The doctors are working on her now."

Charlie was glad he'd made Larry sit down first, because it looked like the older man might not have been able to remain standing, he looked so pale.

"Deirdre? No... no... It just... It can't..." he stuttered, but couldn't get the words out.

"Larry..." Charlie tried to soothe his friend, however given his own emotional state he didn't have much to offer.

"I invited her. She came because of me... She wouldn't have..." Larry was babbling, but Charlie knew what he meant.

"No, Larry. You are not to blame for this. You cannot blame yourself for what happened." Charlie could tell he wasn't reaching Larry. "Don?" Charlie turned to his brother, who was still on the phone. Don gestured to him to wait a minute.

Charlie turned back to Larry. "If anything, it's my fault. I tried to protect her and I failed."

"You're both wrong," Don interjected, closing his cell phone with a snap. "The only people to blame are the bastards who did this. End of story."

Before they could argue, a doctor stepped into the waiting room. "Are you waiting for news on Ms. Rydell?"

"Dr. Rydell, yes," Larry hastily responded. "Please tell me everything."

"Dr. Rydell was shot once in the side, with an exit wound in her back. She's done with surgery and is in recovery right now. Once she's moved out of recovery and into a room, you'll be able to see her. I can't say how long it will be before she regains consciousness, though. She lost a lot of blood and was extremely weak when the ambulance brought her in. If there had been any more blood loss there might have been greater complications, but with transfusions we were able to stabilize her enough for the necessary surgery."

All three men could fill in the blanks without being told. Complications like brain damage, heart failure and even death.

Charlie knew he'd still have words with the building's safety manager, but now they'd be grateful ones instead of complaints.


	5. Chapter 5

Blackout 5/6

* * *

Chapter 5:

Charlie sat in a chair next to Deirdre's bed and watched the sunlight move slowly across her blankets.

Don had forced him and Larry to go home last night once they had seen Deirdre safely out of surgery. Charlie had managed to convince Larry not to cancel his morning class by agreeing to stay with Deirdre himself, as if he hadn't already planned to do so.

A nurse had assured him that she hadn't regained consciousness yet so he felt less guilt at having left her last night. She'd stirred a few times since he'd arrived, but hadn't woken up yet.

Charlie lightly stroked the back of her hand, silently wishing her awake even though he knew rest was what her body needed now more than anything.

He put his head down for a moment, trying to banish the visuals that kept invading his consciousness: the expression of fear on Deirdre's face, the blood that he couldn't seem to stop from pouring from her, how pale and still she'd looked under the oxygen mask in the ambulance...

Suddenly he felt movement near his hand. He looked up to find Deirdre's finger tapping his hand lightly. Long, short, long, short. Morse code for the letter 'C'.

She knows it's me, Charlie thought with a smile. Gently, Charlie lifted her hand and wrapped it around his own, formed in the shape of the sign language letter 'Y'.

Deirdre's eyes flickered, but she seemed unable to keep them open.

'U-O-K,' she tapped.

Charlie pressed the 'Y' into her hand again, and followed it up with a 'U'.

Deirdre tried to tap out another message but seemed frustrated with her inability to get it right.

Charlie noticed this and formed her hand into the letters 'O-K' to let her know she could sign, instead.

'H-U-R-T-S,' she signed slowly, each letter appearing to take a great deal of effort.

Charlie looked around for her pain medication button and pressed it for her. His mother had had one and he knew it would give her relief, even if it meant she'd likely lose consciousness again. Deirdre might not feel the full effects for a few minutes, but at least he felt like he was doing something for her.

Deirdre finally managed to open her eyes somewhat and raised her arm to sign one last thing to Charlie before she drifted off again.

Charlie didn't know many signs beyond fingerspelling but he knew this one.

Thank you.


	6. Chapter 6

Blackout 6/6

* * *

Chapter 6:

The last of Charlie's students left the room and Charlie didn't even notice. Once they'd all turned in their tests, he'd put all his attention towards grading them quickly. His lighting-fast mind and eidetic numerical memory meant he could grade papers merely by looking at them for a moment, instantly noticing any errors.

What he didn't notice was Deirdre standing in the doorway of his classroom.

She finally knocked on the door, startling him.

"Hey! What are you doing here? Your four weeks off aren't up yet! Aren't you supposed to be at home recuperating still?" He ushered her into the room and offered her a chair, which she waved off.

"I just wanted to... I guess I wanted to come back and see..." She was having trouble expressing herself, but Charlie understood. He'd had trouble his first time back in the classroom as well, even though the blood and shattered blackboards had been cleaned up already. Unable to shake the memories, Charlie had put all the remaining blackboards in a storage closet and moved a small potted palm tree into the corner where the blackboards had been.

Deidre couldn't take her eyes off that corner, regardless.

Charlie stood behind her and rubbed her arms with his hands more to comfort her than to warm her even though she did look chilled.

"See?" he offered. "Everything's fine now."

"Yeah," she said softly, turning around to face him. "Thanks to you."

"No, we both did it." Charlie wasn't going to take the credit for saving them, especially when he was still carrying around the guilt over letting her get shot. "If you hadn't had that PDA..."

Deirdre opened her mouth to protest but stopped and just looked down at the floor, instead.

Charlie picked up on this immediately. "I tell you what. Let's just be glad we're both still alive, put this all behind us, and move forward, okay?"

Deirdre looked up at him gratefully, and nodded.

"You know, Deirdre," Charlie said, lowering his voice, "these last few weeks..."

"Yes," Deidre prompted him, standing a little closer than necessary.

"Coming to visit you while you've been recuperating, having you teach me more sign language... It's been... I've just really been enjoying spending time with you." Charlie stepped a little closer to Deirdre as well. "So, why don't we get out of here and you can start teaching me some more sign language?" he said with a grin.

Deirdre smiled and stepped in closer to him, placing her hand on his chest in the form of the letter 'C'.

"I'd like that," she said softly.

Charlie returned her smile and leaned in to kiss her; one long kiss followed by two short ones.

'D'


End file.
